A Touch of Snow
by HappyLeifEricsonDay
Summary: As if the obstacles involved in a budding relationship aren't already enough, Danny's ghost powers begin to affect his relationship with Sam in a very startling way. (Post-Phantom-Planet.)
1. Touch of Snow

Sup guys.. I keep saying I'm not coming back to this site (to those who've followed me in the past) but then I keep getting inspired by trips down memory lane with shows I used to be fond of.. Ugh, if only the characters weren't so _addicting! _And rad, don't forget rad.

So, yep. A DP story. Takes place post-Phantom-Planet. This chapter is pretty steamy, but it doesn't get so inappropriate that it needs an M rating. Which is why I changed it from M to T.

(In case you're confused, the timeline in this chapter jumps around. Lots of this chapter is flashback, the 'present' is when they're about 19, post-graduation. All of it takes place post-PP.)

* * *

**Chapter One: A Touch of Snow**

x - x - x

"Of course, it's probably too much to ask for a _normal_ date from you," she said sarcastically when he uncovered her eyes.

"Oh please," he scoffed. "If you wanted normal you wouldn't be dating me."

"Normal is synonymous with boring," she admitted, shrugging.

"I'm not gonna lie," he said, plopping down on the spread wool blanket, "I put this stuff up here two days ago."

She snorted in laughter. "Right, when we were _supposed_ to have our date. Two days ago." Sam joined him on the blanket, gazing up at the brilliant pool of stars. She said it dryly, but he knew she was joking. After all, she had been with there him the past two days as they hunted down Vortex across two states. That was just the thing about their lifestyle. Constant cancellations, last minute changes in plans, it all came as part of the package he had chosen five years ago when he first stumbled out of the portal.

"I hope you didn't put the _food_ up here two days ago." She indicated the cooler to their left, where he'd packed food for their date.

"No," he laughed, "that I did earlier tonight."

Sam wasn't really the typical romantic type of girl. She laughed at love poems and scoffed at hallmark cards. She'd be the last person on earth to gush or gossip. Or let show the effect he was having. But Danny had discovered over the past three years since they'd started dating just which buttons to press. God he loved making her blush.

Candles, for instance. She loved candles, though she never admitted it to him. That's why he'd scattered lit candles all over the rooftop of her apartment. It wasn't strictly speaking an apartment complex that _let_ its tenants have access to the roof, but there were benefits to dating a half-ghost. Like phasing directly from Sam's apartment up through several floors, directly to this secluded and surprisingly scenic spot which Danny had discovered two months ago, shortly after she moved out of her parents' house. Whenever they wanted. And they wanted it a lot, as it turned out.

Candles burning low, wax dripping and drying onto the concrete rooftop, they stayed up there for hours, unwilling to call it a night. Talk faded away, as it so often did, and soon there was only silence and their breaths in the flickering light.

As always, kissing her was like stoking a cold flame.

That flame was always there, burning low in his chest, if you could call it burning. It was more like burning ice. It was that energy he tapped into every time he used his powers, that energy that boiled up and flowed forth when he called on it. It was alive inside him, beating there alongside his heart. Kissing Sam riled that flame the same way fighting ghosts did.

At first it had startled him, that she should affect him this way. When he kissed her sometimes he would feel himself shiver, like he used to in the early days of his developing powers, before he found out about the cold inside and that he could control it.

The first time it overflowed he had startled both of them. Kissing her softly behind a tree after they'd dropped Tucker off, ghost patrol done for the evening. (Tucker always seemed to know what Danny had in mind, winking at him conspicuously as Danny rolled his eyes.) She ran her hands down his chest, tentatively, her thumb tracing the threads outlining the stylized "D." They were still so nervous around each other then, trying to bridge the gap between friends and _more-than-friends._ _Lovers_- what an awkward word. As awkward as the two of them. He was kissing her neck when she threaded her fingers into his hair, still white and faintly glowing, and she sighed quietly. Suddenly the dull icy fire roared in his chest like a stove-top flame turned too quickly from _Low_ to _High. _His whole body shivered and so did she as his breath turned to frost against her skin. Her hands flew away quickly, reaching for her neck, her wide eyes staring up at him in shock, in embarrassment, like a girl who's just been told for the first time that she's beautiful.

Of course, like he said, if she wanted normal she wouldn't be dating him. If she _was_ dating someone normal, she'd have regular hickeys, not small burns brought on by exposure to ice.

He'd hoped he would somehow get used to it, and learn to control that icy flame the same way he did before, when his ice powers first manifested themselves fully. But the longer their kissing sessions got, the more difficult it became. Like having your first girlfriend wasn't difficult enough, tripping over those relationship obstacles, learning the boundaries, testing them, learning when it's okay to break them. Being half-ghost just made it so much harder. It wasn't like he could hide the effect she was having on him, like another hormone-crazed boy might. She could _feel_ it as his breath turned to freezing mist, chilling her skin where his lips touched her, she shivered as his fingertips touched the back of her neck.

"It's okay," she said one night, grabbing at his hand as he pulled it away. His hand had glowed blue under her neck, illuminating the pillow eerily. He was glad it was dark in her bedroom because otherwise she'd see how flushed with embarrassment his face was. "Really," she added, biting her bottom lip nervously. "I… I kind of like it."

"You like it when I accidentally _freeze_ you?" he mocked. They spoke in hushed voices. Though they were nearing the end of senior year at the time, Sam's parents still controlled her life, and (to put it lightly) they would not be happy to find Danny in her room at two in the morning.

"It's just..." Sam abruptly looked away.

Danny rolled off of her, groaning. His hands pressed against his face. He contemplated phasing into the bed itself to hide his own embarrassment. "I try to control it, Sam," he whispered. "It's… difficult." He wondered if he sounded as exasperated as he felt.

"So?" she said, letting a smile creep onto her face. She sat up, looking down at him in a calculating way. "It doesn't bother me."

He sat up so that his face was a mere inch from hers, studying her eyes, deciding she wasn't just placating him. "What did you mean when you said you liked it?"

It was Sam's turn to blush. Her eyes dropped. "I guess.. it just…"

"It just what?" he pressed. He didn't mean to put her on the spot but she had piqued his curiosity.

"Makes me feel like.. you want me," she finished, glancing at him uncertainly. "You do, right?" she added, as if it was actually a _question. _As if there was any possible way he could answer with a _no._

"You know," he said conversationally, "that's just about the dumbest question I've ever heard."Her eyes narrowed and she seemed like she was about to retort sarcastically, so he pulled her head in to meet his again.

She seemed shocked by the abrupt 'change of subject' but melted quickly back into the kiss. His hands trailed down to her waist lazily as hers snaked back around his shoulders. He could feel that flame boiling over, and an interesting idea occurred to him. So instead of trying to squash it this time he channeled it. He broke the kiss for a moment, raising his right hand to her cheek. He let that roiling energy flow into his hand, watching as his arm disappeared at the elbow. A tingling sensation where his fingers would normally be. He touched her cheek gently, transferring just enough energy not to turn her skin intangible but to experience that tingling sensation. That hovering impossible feeling just between tangibility and intangibility. The effect was immediate- her eyes fluttered closed as she shuddered against his hand, leaning further into it. A grin crept onto his face.

Danny let his hand wander downward, igniting the skin on the nape of her neck with that tingling sensation. She looked flushed and surprised, but she didn't look at all like she wanted him to stop, so he kept going. His hand found the gap between her tank and her cotton shorts, where the skin on her stomach was peeking through tantalizingly. He traced her waist with his fingertips, finding the groove in the middle of her lower back, tracing it upwards underneath her shirt. Her forehead came to rest on his shoulder, and he could feel her breath warm and ragged through his shirt.

"What does that feel like?" he mumbled against her ear, sincere in his curiosity, pausing in the intangible circles he was tracing between her shoulder blades.

Sam looked up at him, something like laughter in her eyes. "It feels like.." She rested one fingertip against his neck and slowly dragged it down, _maddeningly_ slow_. _She leaned in to kiss the nook of his collarbone, letting her lips linger there a centimeter away, running her thumb along the base of his stomach, tracing the inside of the seam of his jeans. She was torturing him on purpose, judging by the triumphant way she looked back up at him, almost like she was getting payback for that trick he pulled.

"When I signed up to date you, I didn't realize I was signing up for torture," he mused.

"You started it."

Without warning, she threw her leg over him, perching on his lap and staring into his eyes demurely. _Fu-uuuck,_ was the only thing he could think numbly, as she grabbed his wrist, which had since become tangible and slipped away from her, and placed his hand on her lower back again.

"I didn't say you had to stop, though," she said coyly. She kissed him lightly as he traced her skin again, threading his way further and further under her shirt. He glanced up at her face, unsure where the boundary _was_ anymore, and realized he wasn't going to get a _no_ from her anytime soon. When he found his way under her bra she bit his lower lip, not in the _stop_ kind of way but the _don't-you-dare-stop_ kind of way. His heart flipped over. And suddenly that ice flared up again without warning, and the room behind her back glowed an eerie blue as his hand lit up and fired off a sharp blast of ice, which hit the mirror in the corner of her room, shattering it loudly.

The two of them jumped so violently they could have hit the ceiling.

"Oh _shit,"_ Sam muttered darkly, "You'd better hide before my parents get in here!"

"What are you going to tell them?" he freaked, falling off the bed in a panic.

"I don't freaking know-"

_"SAM!"_

_"What are you doing out of bed at this hour? What happened?"_

Good thing Danny was on the floor on the other side of the bed. He prayed silently that they didn't notice how the reflective shards of mirror were more like shards of shattered ice, and drifted invisibly through her bedroom floor as Sam began to stutter an explanation.

Under the stars on the rooftop months and months later, he lost himself once again in the warm feel of her skin on his. He liked to think it was getting easier to control these days, but mostly he knew he was just kidding himself. It was like the deeper in they dove, the harder it was to keep his cool. _Ha, keep my cool._ That was a stupid pun worthy of Tucker. Not that Tucker, or anyone, knew about this particularly frustrating and particularly trying problem.

The candles had all but burned out by now, unlike the burning in his chest.

"We could take this inside, if you want," he said to her cryptically between kisses. "Might be more comfortable than rolling around on a blanket on concrete."

"We could," she agreed, "but it's so much more fun to kiss out here than my stuffy little apartment. Hey, what are you doing back there?"

"Huh?" Danny feigned surprise, pulling his hand out from between the blanket and her back. "Oh, you mean this?" He held up his hand and let it turn tangible again, revealing the black laced bra that he'd been holding invisible as well.

"That is _so_ cheating. You know, most guys have to do that the hard way."

Danny shrugged. "I'm not most guys."

"Figures," she said with an air of sass, "that even in the _bedroom_ you would be a lazy sack of potatoes."

"Hey," he said, throwing the bra somewhere behind him. "I resent that. I'm not lazy, just…" He paused for emphasis, reaching under her loose shirt to deliver that maddening intangible feeling he _knew_ killed her. "Resourceful," he finished as she let out a small gasp.

"Danny," she said suddenly, raggedly, catching him off guard. He'd been expecting her to make another saucy retort. But the way she'd said his name.. He was suddenly struck by the sight of her. Her shining black hair pooled under her head, reflecting soft yellow candlelight. Her pale skin, fragile and soft. Her lips hung apart, like the edge of his name was still trailing out. Her shirt was only half on at this point, and it had never looked so good on her. The fact was, Sam was drop-dead-gorgeous. _Another undead pun worthy of Tuck._ And sometimes it still struck him fresh and new that she was _his,_ that somehow, when she could have had anybody she wanted, she chose him. And right now her eyes seemed to be choosing him in a different kind of way, there was almost a hunger there.

He felt that all-too-familiar surge of hot energy, and saw her face glow green as the ectoplasm flashed within his irises.

At first back when it started happening, Danny had been terrified that this manifestation of powers during their, uh, activities, would scare her. It scared him, in that he was terrified if they went too far then he wouldn't be able to control it and would accidentally hurt her. But strangely it seemed not to scare Sam but to embolden her. And that's what happened now, as his normally blue eyes flashed green in the dim light of the Milky Way and dying candles.

She yanked him down to kiss her, never mind his scary eyes. Before he knew it her shirt was somehow joining her bra behind them, and so was his plaid button-up. Her whole body was pressed against his and where their bare skin met it was like meeting with the surface of a lake of lava. _Do you even know what you do to me?_ he wondered. And his hand was under her skirt, feeling the way the cotton panties underneath sat against the curve of her hip. He broke the kiss and breathed a stream of half-formed snowflakes over her shoulder, most of which were immediately blown into her hair by the breeze. He'd found if he did this every couple of minutes it was slightly easier to control the overflowing energy. And then her hands were at the button on his jeans, fumbling with the zipper as she kissed his freezing lips.

The two of them had toed this line many times, never sure where they were going to stop.

_"We don't have to stop," she had said once before, her back arching against the icy touch of his fingers on her inner thigh._

But they always did have to stop somewhere, as Danny's energy would inevitable surface and ruin everything. But every time it got harder and harder to draw that line. After all, three years was a damn long time to date somebody without sealing the deal.

But she didn't move to stop him when he separated her skirt from her body with a simple surge of intangibility. And he didn't stop her when she yanked on his jeans forcefully.

In the end, these sessions with Sam were an exercise in self-control for Danny. Which would win, his desire for her or his desire to keep her safe from himself?

Before now, the latter had always won out, one way or another. But tonight… he just couldn't force the ectoplasm to dim in his eyes. And he _really wanted her._ She'd made it clear she wanted him, alright. Not for the first time, he found himself performing mental acrobatics, convincing himself that he _was_ in control and that _maybe it's okay._

Sam certainly didn't seem to have any personal qualms as his hand slipped beneath the last bit of fabric she wore. If Danny melted at what she did to him, it wasn't anything compared to how he loved seeing her reaction at what _he _was doing to _her._ Turns out that half-intangibility trick worked on _all_ parts of her body. He shivered violently and let yet another flurry of snow escape his mouth, aiming away from Sam. But with the slight breeze, her skin was soon littered with tiny malformed snowflakes. He brushed them lightly off her chest with the back of his hand, shivering even more strongly. His arms disappeared before him, flickering out of existence like a faulty light bulb, causing Sam's whole body to flicker as well. _Shit. _Lately it was about when this started happening that they were forced to halt progress. But as he pulled back from her Sam held on, her fingers digging into the skin on his back.

And then the last of their clothing was gone, joining the rest of it somewhere in the darkness of the rooftop. By now all but one or two candles had burned out, leaving them alone in the dim washed starlight. There was a voice in Danny's head screaming at him to stop, but it was drowned out by all his other senses. He didn't notice as he hovered over her how the crevice on her neck, between her breasts, beneath her hair, were slowly beginning to fill again with soft flakes of snow. The breeze surrounding them was still warm, but the two shivered against each other like they were naked outside in the depths of winter.

He hesitated over her, searching her eyes for some last hint of denial or reproach. He knew he wouldn't find it but he felt compelled to look, to give her a chance to stop him. Because he knew he would, if she wanted him to. But she blew that notion out of the water, by doing it again, saying his name that way. "Danny." God, she was like a _siren_ or something, the way she could melt his resolve with a single spoken word. The lust in her voice was absolutely unmistakable, and not ignorable.

He felt his hands freeze to the blanket as he broke the last barrier that ever stood between them, somehow simultaneously hating himself and feeling enraptured all at once. Both of those emotions were completely drowned, however, in the wake of the glacial tidal wave that boiled up inside his chest. He'd pictured this moment for so long but now that it was happening he was completely blindsided by the pure ungodly energy he could feel spilling out of him. He _knew_ he should stop at this point, and some small voice inside him was scared when he found that he couldn't. She gasped at first, and he'd meant to take it slow, but it was like there was an engine turning inside him. He wanted to hit himself, but it was like his voice of reason was completely locked away. It was only a distant whisper compared to the raw energy flowing down his arms, and he vaguely registered the layer of ice rippling outward where his hands clutched the frozen blanket, the particles of frozen water each refracting the fiery green light of his eyes. When she threaded her hands into his black hair and started to move against him he felt another surge through his veins, turned his face away from her as a veritable blizzard escaped into the night.

It was then that he knew for sure that he _wasn't _handling it, and that locked-away voice suddenly flared within him. He looked back into Sam's face and her eyes were closed, snow crusted to her long eyelashes. Her lips were _blue._

"Sam?" Danny channeled all his self-control into the effort to stop their motions, his hand flying to her face in concern. Her eyes fluttered open at the sudden caesura of movement, scattered the snow that had gathered on her lashes. His hand tried to brush away the snow that had gathered on her cheeks but as he touched the clump of snowflakes they froze solid beneath his fingers, sticking to her skin. "Oh god," he groaned, pulling back suddenly, sickened with himself. He practically fell backwards as he pulled out of her, tripping over his own two legs, falling partway through the floor as his arm and shoulder disappeared without his permission.

"D-dan-ny?" Sam said, stumbling over her words like she had hypothermia. She sat up quickly, reaching out for him, her wide eyes flashing with concern.

_What did I do to her?_

As her hand connected with his bare chest there was a flash of blue light and she pulled it back again quickly like she'd been shocked, clutching her hand against her chest. Even now, when she looked at him she didn't seem scared or even aware that he'd half-frozen her. She looked anxious and worried, about _him. _And there was something else there too, something Danny didn't like at all. It looked like rejection. Danny reached out to her instinctually, hating what he had done, but stopped short, knowing that touching her would only make it worse. So, he did the only thing he could think to do and let loose all that icy fire that was threatening to break out of every inch of his skin. It poured through his hands and froze every inch of the rooftop, cracking and stretching across the cement, encasing the dead candles in cages of ice. Through his clenched teeth a spray of frozen mist forced its way out, covering the two of them in a fresh layer of snow. By the time the deluge of ice subsided it looked like winter solstice up there.

He felt a familiar sensation around his waist as a ring of light appeared, responding to the massive release of energy. Instead of forcing it down he let it wash over him, sweeping outward through his veins recklessly like a hurricane through a broken window. His bare skin was traded for familiar black fabric.

Sam's mouth hung open in shock, but she didn't flinch when he finally reached forward to touch her cheek. Taking that as a sign that he was no longer burning her with his touch, he quickly pulled her into his arms, channeling his energy into her and making them both disappear, leaving only two body prints in the snow as he dropped quickly through four stories into her small apartment.

"Wh-what are you do- oing?" she stuttered, clutching her arms about herself as Danny laid her fragile body in her bathtub. Damn, her lips were still blue. Entire locks of her hair were frozen together.

"Trying to undo the damage I already did," he replied, not meeting her in the eye. He turned the water on halfway up the heat-scale, not wanting to shock her body with the abrupt temperature change. His heart fluttered madly in his chest as the water poured over her. The flame was already roaring again just from looking at her, even with that snowy outburst on the roof.

Looking at her now, both more beautiful and more unattainable than ever before, was the most trying test he had ever endured.

* * *

Despite what it may seem, this story isn't going to be 100% fluff and definitely not 100% drama. The adventure comes in in the next chapter. ;)

See you there, folks


	2. Fire and Ice

Bonjour, lovelies. Enjoy chapter 2. There will probably be around 5 chapters, just a heads up for those who are wondering.

* * *

**Chapter Two: Fire and Ice**

x - x - x

An hour later he was phasing through his own bedroom wall at FentonWorks, holding his head in his hands.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid. You are so stupid, Fenton. A real sleaze. Lowest of the low. Some boyfriend you are. When did your own raging hormones become more important that Sam's well-being? So, so stupid! _It was a circular endless litany that had been playing in his mind ever since he left Sam tucked into her warm bed. The warm bath water had taken half an hour to calm her violent shivering.

Danny triggered his transformation back to human distractedly, fumbling through his dresser for sweatpants. He hadn't even bothered trying to find his clothes under the layers and layers of snow and ice on the roof at Sam's apartment. The drawer slammed closed much harder than he'd meant it to.

He was sitting on the edge of his bed with his forehead on his hand when his bedroom door creaked. _Just what I need. _Probably his mom or dad coming in to lecture him, yet again, about abusing his powers by sneaking off to Sam's in the middle of the night. He was a legal adult and they _still_ found it necessary somehow, although they'd definitely let up since he graduated, assumedly for the reason that he could move out any time he wished. Without bothering to look up Danny growled, "What?"

He saw her silhouette against the wall he was staring at as his visitor stepped in, letting hallway light spill into the room. Long hair falling all over the place. He immediately felt less annoyed, realizing it was just Jazz.

"Hi Danny," she said softly. Her voice was gentle even though he'd snapped at her. "Can I come in for a sec?"

He lifted his hand from his hands long enough to glance at her. She stood in his doorway uncertainly, which struck him as strange, considering she normally had no qualms about invading his privacy, barging in whenever she pleased. He let out a sigh. "Yeah, I guess."

She sat next to him tentatively. He could feel her analyzing gaze pouring into the side of his head. He shifted uncomfortably. She had the uncanny power to make him feel like an open book, even when he was trying to stay tightly shut. Like she was reading his mind. Then again, she really did that to everyone. After a minute of silence he couldn't take it. "Look, if you're here to lecture me, you can just save your breath."

"I'm not here to lecture you, Danny."

He made a scoffing noise.

"Are you okay?" she intoned, resting her hand on his shoulder.

"Fine," he said. He shrugged her hand off. "Just great."

"I know where you sneak off to in the middle of the night. I can tell because you've been sneaking out for five years and there's a difference between coming back from a ghost fight and coming back from a girl's house." Danny had to fight not to roll his eyes. "It's perfectly normal, you know, and while mom and dad give you grief for it they know it's normal too. That's why I'm not in here to lecture you. That's why I _made_ them stop riding your case about it."

Danny raised his eyebrow at that. He'd never have guessed that the decrease in the "girlfriend" lectures was thanks to Jazz's interference.

"So if you're not in here to lecture me, why're you here?"

"Um.." Jazz seemed at a loss for words for a moment, which was truly rare. Rare enough that Danny actually looked up at her from his resting place on his hand, and caught an expression that looked almost embarrassed. "Wow, this is so awkward," she laughed quietly, more to herself than to Danny.

Just then Danny noticed for the first time a small box she was holding in her lap, white and unadorned. "What's that?" he asked.

Jazz snapped out of her small reverie. "Oh this?" she replied, pointing down at the box like she had just barely noticed it too. "It's uh…"

Danny peered at her, trying to figure out why she was acting so weird.

"Here," she said suddenly, placing the box in his lap. It was very light, like there was barely anything inside. "I made mom invent them, just for you. If you think _this_ is an awkward conversation, you should have been there for _that_ one. I tried to explain it with subtlety, but she didn't understand and pretty much made me spell it out for her. I mean, there's no commercial market for them at all. No one would ever need to use one of these. Well except for you. I was surprised neither mom or dad had ever thought about it, and surprised _you_ never thought about it."

Danny opened the box with a curious foreboding, not sure he even wanted to know what Jazz was talking about. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw that the box was full of thin, small, square, wrapped packages. Each about 2"x2".

Jazz stammered over her continued explanation. "It's just.. there's so much we don't know about your anatomy, Danny, we just don't know. Who _knows_ if normal protection would work with your ghost DNA? I mean, you can phase through _walls, _so why not through... You're my brother, I just want you to be safe. And I don't want you to have to deal with something as scary as parenthood until you're good and ready. You deserve that."

Danny literally had _no_ idea what to say to her. He was torn between embarrassment, gratitude, and shock, but the predominant feeling that began to drown the rest of them was that same feeling of self-deprecation that had been churning in his mind since he left Sam's house. He realized belatedly that this meant his parents and Jazz and probably everyone else all thought he and Sam were having sex, and he was furious to realize that he _wished_ they were right.

And with that, he couldn't look at the little box anymore. He tossed it behind him on the bed, and let his face fall back into his hands. No matter what that seemed to be his default position tonight. "Thanks for the sentiment, Jazz," he said dryly. "But you've been worrying yourself for nothing." He pried his right hand from his face and idly focused on his fingertips, shaping and reshaping a small ice crystal there between his thumb and forefinger, which was a nervous habit of his.

That seemed to catch her off guard. "What do you mean?"

He didn't answer her, instead allowing the palm of his hand to slowly fill with the tiny crystals. They grew and fell over each other, piling higher until they began to spill through his fingertips onto his knees.

"Danny, are you sure you're okay?" she repeated her earlier question. He could feel her analyzing eyes on him again, watching as little crystals spilled onto the floor around his ankles.

"Wish I had a brother," he muttered, realizing only belatedly that he'd spoken the thought aloud. "Not that sisters aren't awesome," he added hastily, hoping he hadn't just injured her feelings. "There are just some things a brother can't talk to his sister about."

"Isn't that what Tucker's for?" she said with a hint of a smile.

"Not for stuff like this." He hadn't noticed that he'd created a pile of crystals a couple inches high around his feet by now.

Jazz seemed to realize how distracted he was because she said, "Danny, I can tell when something's on your mind. You're doing that thing with the ice again."

"Huh?" Danny looked up from the pile of crystals in his hand. He looked down at the floor and realized how much ice was there. He aimed a tiny blast of ectoplasm at it, melting them instantaneously into a smoldering puddle of water.

Jazz sighed. "I may not be a brother, but I have known you for nineteen years, Danny. You know you can talk to me about _anything, _and I mean anything. You've seemed so distracted lately, and I know it has something to do with Sam. Maybe I can help you, if only so that you have someone to talk to."

Danny looked at her for a moment, deciding that yes, she could in fact read his mind. He didn't think anyone had picked up on his relationship snag with Sam, since they were so outwardly happy as a couple. He should have known that Jazz would see his distress. She had always been the one who saw through his masks. He decided then to confide in Jazz, but chose his words very carefully.

"Sam and I are happy," he began, "and I love her more than words can say. But when I try to show it.. my powers get in the way. I feel like I'm freaking fourteen all over again, stumbling through walls because I've got no idea how to control the stupid powers. It's like back when my ice powers first manifested and I kept freezing everything I touched because it was just overflowing, it's exactly like that. I just can't control it! She's so patient but it's _maddening,_ you know? And tonight…" The image of Sam in the bathtub surfaced in his mind, shivering in the water with a pale face and blue lips. "I thought I could control it but I went too far. The reason we've been taking it so slow is because I'm so scared I'm going to lose control and hurt her, and what happened tonight confirmed that."

"Wha- is she okay?" Jazz asked in alarm.

"She's fine," Danny said robotically. Physically fine, he added mentally. Who knews what she _thought_ of him after tonight. "It's just that I almost froze her solid." He shook off the image of Sam sitting in the field of ice and snow upright and naked but for a layer of snowflakes crusted to her skin.

He was surprised when Jazz suddenly hugged him. "Danny, I am so sorry." He didn't hug her back but she didn't seem to mind. When she pulled away she kept her hands on his shoulders so he couldn't let his face fall into his hands again. "It's no wonder you haven't wanted to talk about it," she added. "I can see how distraught you are, but _don't_ be Danny. You learned how to control your powers before and I'm sure you'll learn how to control this too. Besides, Sam loves you."

Danny just shook his head sadly. "It's only getting worse. It's like the closer Sam and I get, the less control I have."

"Well what did you do when your ice powers first showed up? Did you just learn how to control them by teaching yourself?"

Danny chewed on that for a moment. No, he hadn't. He reminded her about Frostbite, and the Far Frozen. It had been a long time since he'd talked about that.

"Do you think Frostbite could help you again?"

Danny shrugged noncommittally. Somehow, he didn't think so.

"Maybe it's worth a shot," Jazz said hopefully. "I don't know if you want advice from me, but if I were to give it I'd say that a visit to the Far Frozen might help you work through this problem. I'm glad you told me though, even though you didn't want to. It's never good to bottle up feelings like that."

Did she have to psychoanalyze everything he did?

She stood up from the bed, stepping over the puddle of water at their feet. "Remember that I'm always here if you need to talk, Danny." She kissed him on the top of his head before she left, a fond gesture of hers that she'd never seemed to grow out of. Back in middle and high school he used to brush away her kisses like they were poisoned, exclaiming things like _Gross, _but she'd still never stopped.

He didn't know why he'd thought a brother would've been better to talk to than Jazz. No one understood him like Jazz did.

His heart felt strangely lighter as he fell asleep that night.

x - x - x

The dome ceiling of the Frozen Archives sloped two hundred feet overhead, but even from the ground level Danny could make out the intricate ice carvings that sprawled across the surface from wall to wall. Every inch of every wall and shelf was lined with books in various states of wear and decay, each one appearing to be centuries old. Frostbite had shown him around the monumental library, taken him to the section dealing with anatomy. Danny could see the curiosity on his furry face but Frostbite didn't pry. To be honest, Danny had been intending on asking Frostbite himself for advice but once he got here he found he just couldn't do it. So here he was, doing the research himself.

There were several thickly bound books spread out on the wooden table before him. He'd gone through each one already, and his heart felt like stone in his chest. The one he was looking through now was no more helpful than the last few. Each one told him pretty much the same thing.

The paragraph he was on now blurred together. His concentration was dissolving.

_…natural reaction anatomically. The increase in energy level is triggered by sexual excitement and the release of certain hormones. (See page 391.) The temperature around the mating pair will lower drastically in correspondence with the male's energy level. If the female is responsive, her temperature will naturally drop as well until it matches that of the male's. (See graph on page 395.)When the female's energy level aligns with the male's…_

Danny sighed in exasperation and slammed the book closed. He was tired of reading the same explanation over and over again. He felt like it was Sex Ed back in freshman year all over again, except this time he was going through it voluntarily, which was markedly worse. He tossed the heavy book aside to join the pile of the ones he had already read.

He was at the point of wishing he had never come to the Far Frozen looking for answers. He had answers now, but they weren't the ones he wanted.

Every book said the same thing. What he was experiencing was _natural, _it was to be _celebrated_, it was a healthy and normal thing for people of their kind, species whose power cores were like Danny's. It was not something they learned to control, it was something they embraced. Every book was telling Danny to embrace it, to let that icy power flow exactly when it wanted to, because "_if the female is responsive, her temperature will naturally drop as well until it matches that of the male's."_ He wasn't supposed to suppress it for Sam, the books said, she was supposed to meet him there. The unfairness of it nearly choked him.

"How goes your research, Great One?"

Danny snapped to attention. He hadn't seen Frostbite appear before him on the other side of the table. He tried not to feel embarrassed as Frostbite observed the books he had laid out on the table. He was sure Frostbite knew exactly what was detailed in those pages.

Danny shrugged. "I guess I found what I was looking for," he said unhappily.

Frostbite crossed his arms behind his back, one massive furry one and one made of solid ice. "And what you found was not to your liking?" he inquired respectfully.

"No, it wasn't," he answered truthfully. "I thought I'd find information that could solve my problem but all I found out was that I have a different problem than I thought I did."

"Is there any way I could assist you in this problem?" His face wore an expression of genuine concern. Danny had never understood what Frostbite saw in him, or why he ever went out of his way to help him.

"Somehow I don't think so," he replied dejectedly. "I don't think anyone in the world could solve my problem."

"What is the nature of your problem, Great One?"

Danny sighed. "You know I hate being called that."

Frostbite only smiled, as he usually did when Danny bristled at the name. "Very well, Danny Phantom." The informal name sounded strange on Frostbite's tongue.

"My problem," Danny began, "is that none of these books help me at all. They all say what I'm going through is _natural_ and that I should embrace it. I thought I would find some instructions somewhere on how to control my energy, not instructions telling me to let it out. I almost killed my girlfriend yesterday trying to keep the ice _in._ I don't want to think about what would happen to her if I did what these books were telling me and just let the energy flow where and when it wants to. All these books are talking about _two people_ who have that frozen core. My girlfriend.. doesn't have that. So you can understand why you can't help me with my problem, unless you can get rid of my ice powers or you can give some to Sam." He sagged in his chair, unwilling to look Frostbite in the eye.

"Hmm." Frostbite seemed to mull over everything Danny had said. "I'll be back in a moment, Great One." Danny didn't bother mentioning the excessive title.

It was only a minute before the huge creature had returned, holding a red leather bound book in his paw. The title was written in loopy golden words in a language unfamiliar to Danny. "Your problem is not so unique as you might think," he intoned, taking a seat by the half ghost on the wooden bench and opening the worn book. The chapter he opened to was prefaced by a detailed drawing of a woman, whose body seemed to be encased in flames.

"Is this a fairytale?" Danny asked humorously, "Because I _so_ do not need a fable to put my problems into perspective."

"It is in fact a legend among my people," Frostbite answered honestly, "But just because it is a legend does not make it untrue. Five hundred years ago a member of our council, known to history as Icehand, fell in love with a being outside our species. Her name was Narira, and she lived alone in her own realm of the Ghost Zone, on an island surrounded by a lake of fire. They said she was formed out of that very lake. No one could stand near her for fear of burning alive, and people of my own species could not even enter her realm. It was on neutral ground that they met, in a far corner of the Ghost Zone, and no one could say there had ever been two people more suited to each other."

How could they be suited to each other if they couldn't even get near each other? Danny didn't voice the thought, though.

"And so, in order to be with her, Icehand called upon our ancient forgers to create a token for Narira to wear that would allow him to be with her without harming either of them. They created a necklace with its own heart of ice, and he gave it to Narira on their wedding day. When the necklace fell over her own heart it acted as both a shield and an open door between their two cores, allowing Icehand to touch her for the first time."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Danny said curiously, examining the faded illustration of the necklace on the yellowing page. It looked like a normal silver necklace, but for the wide clear crystal that seemed to hold a glowing shard of ice in it's core, the power of it seemed to shine even through the faded discolored drawing.

"I thought it might help to know you aren't the only being who's ever gone through this problem. And I thought you might want to know where to find Narira, if you should so wish to speak with her." He said it nonchalantly, turning the page to reveal what looked like a map of a small portion of the Ghost Zone, with a large drawing of a flame in the center of the page.

* * *

Okay so I know I said the adventure comes in in this chapter, but I guess it doesn't really get going till next chapter. Whatevs I ain't even sorry.

See you next chapter folks!


	3. Lake of Fire

Shorter chapter, don't shoot me! I had to cut it off here because the next chapter really needed its own section.

* * *

**Chapter Three: Lake of Fire**

x - x - x

"So, explain to me again why Tucker isn't coming?" Sam asked, for the third time since they'd left her apartment.

"I already told you," Danny repeated, "he's at work. Plus this way we don't have to take the Specter Speeder since it's just us."

Presently, the two of them were flying deeper into the swirling gray-green sky of the Ghost Zone, leaving the Fenton portal swiftly behind.

Team Phantom had definitely grown in the years since the Disastroid, when nearly sixty people had found out about his powers, his parents and Valerie included. He was grateful for the help from his family and Val most of the time, but every so often it felt nice to be on a mission with the original team: just him, Sam, and Tucker. Which was probably why Sam was so interested in the fact that Danny had left their best friend behind on this one.

"We could've just waited till Tucker got off work," Sam needled. "Besides I _heard_ Jazz in the kitchen asking you if she could come along. I'm beginning to think this is all just a ploy to get me alone, Ghost Boy. Do I need to call for help?" She grinned at him with stunning sarcasm, resting her hand innocently on the 'talk' button on her earpiece.

Should have guessed she was too smart to fall for his enigmatic answers. He rolled with it. "Call for help if you want," he shrugged. "But if I _really_ wanted to kidnap you, do you think anyone in your contacts could save you?" He let his eyes flare up green and bared his teeth sardonically.

"Oh shut up, Danny," she laughed. "It's kind of sad how _not_ scary you are, to be honest."

"Hey, I'm terrifying," he insisted, pouting.

"So where are we going again?" she said, ignoring his pout. "And if you answer me cryptically one more time I'm going to hurl."

Danny pulled the torn pages from their place tucked into his white belt. He'd actually been astonished when Frostbite had ripped them from the book and handed them to him. _Defacing an ancient text?_ But then Frostbite had laughed, assuring Danny that the Archives housed hundreds of copies of that book.

_"Do you really think speaking to Narira will help me?" Danny had asked, taking the map from his friend uncertainly. "Can't I speak with Icehand himself? Does he still live in the Far Frozen, or with Narira?"_

_Frostbite's expression had fallen. "Regretfully, Icehand is not with us in the Ghost Zone. His spirit moved on long, long ago."_

_Oh._

_Danny clung to his last hope. "But that necklace," he implored, "couldn't your forgers make another one? For me?"_

_"We would if we were able, Great One," Frostbite said sadly, "but our remarkably capable forgers died out long ago as well. Gone are the days when our people could create such objects of power."_

Danny pointed out to Sam the flame drawn at the center of the page. "That's our destination." He didn't know what it was he hoped to gain by speaking with Narira. Maybe advice? Help? Direction? Beg her for her necklace? Maybe he wouldn't gain anything by going there at all, but he'd be damned if he wasn't going to try.

As for bringing Sam… At first he'd planned on going alone, and he'd actually started on the flight alone, but he'd turned back halfway there. It just felt wrong. This was something the two of them needed to do together. What he hadn't anticipated was how much he'd trip over trying to explain to Sam what kind of a mission they were on.

Oddly shaped doors drifted past them as they floated through the eerie perpetual twilight. They knew from experience how different the dimension behind every closed door was, but even so, they always piqued his curiosity when he visited the Ghost Zone. After all they'd only ever gone into a couple dozen, and the number of doorways in here was infinite.

Though at the surface level they appeared to be arranged randomly, intricate maps picked out subtle coagulations of road-like patterns in both the doorways and the concentration of the ectoplasmic atmosphere, almost like tides and currents in an ocean. Right now they were following a thick central vein, branching out into smaller capillaries, one of which eventually led to Narira's domain.

"There's someone in there that I have to speak to," Danny answered Sam's questioning look. "Frostbite sent me," he added, hoping that was enough to allay her curiosity. "Could you hang onto this?" he asked quickly, folding the map and handing it to her. "You can direct me where to go so I can focus on steering."

"Frostbite?" she said with surprise, not distracted by his change of subject. "I didn't know you talked to him recently."

"Yeah, uh, just yesterday."

He concentrated on flying while Sam continued studying the withered map.

Today was their lucky day because they made it down the central vein without attack or incident, which wasn't unheard of for a trip into the Ghost Zone but was rare enough to be noted and appreciated. The flight had only taken thirty minutes, so Danny wasn't even a little tired.

The door that loomed up before them seemed to be forged from volcanic rock. It was arguably more formidable than any other door he'd seen in here.

"_This_ is where we're going?" Sam said incredulously. "You probably should have warned me to pack more than just a few light weapons. What is this place anyway?" She added as Danny swung open the heavy door.

"A ghost named Narira lives here."

The doorway led to the top of a steep rocky hill. The sky above them swirled black and grey and purple, lighting up every so often with distant lightning. The first thing that hit Danny was a massive wave of heat. It wasn't overwhelming but it sure slowed him down. The two of them held hands for balance as they picked their way down the craggy hillside. Danny didn't want to overuse his strength here, not even by flying. He remembered what Frostbite had said about Narira and her home. _No one could stand near her for fear of burning alive, and people of my own species could not even enter her realm. _Too much of Danny's power stemmed from his icy core for him to take chances.

They came over a crest and Sam gasped. Below them was a wide lake of molten lava, or what remained of it. It looked… ancient. Very ancient. Whole islands in the lake were solidified and darkened with hard rock, with small fountains of lava shooting up through cracks. Short cliffs rose up on all sides, making it appear that the lake had once been much more massive but was slowly dwindling away. For some reason the place struck Danny as something to be pitied. On the very center island rose an enormous spired castle, forged from the same black volcanic rock as the hill they stood on.

They barely had time to take in this mystical scene before shit hit the fan.

Sam noticed them first. "Danny," she said, alarm coloring her voice as she pulled out a metal tube of 'lipstick.' "Lava monsters, twelve o'clock."

Small dripping gobs of lava were rising from the lake below, converging at the base of their hill.

"I thought Frostbite said she lived here alone?" he wondered aloud. "I'm hardly going to get a welcome party if I start by destroying all her subjects!"

"Maybe they're not sentient?" Sam offered. "I mean look-" Even as she said that Danny saw several of the gobs combine to create bigger blobs of lava, and saw several more dissipate into nothing, trailing back down the side of the hill in thick molten streams.

"That's enough for me," he said, aiming his hand at the nearest chunk of animate lava. He fired up a charge of ectoplasm and hit his target, sending the lava spraying in every direction.

"Danny, careful!" Sam yelled as flecks of lava flew at them. He quickly turned them intangible just in time for the lava to fly through them.

By now there were at least ten lava goons nearly upon them. So he kept his hand on Sam's arm, retaining their intangibility, and fired blast after blast of ectoplasm around them, scattering the lava into pools. But no matter how many times he blasted, they kept remerging into new groups, rising up again for another attack.

"This isn't working," Sam said urgently. "Got any better ideas?"

"One," Danny said, but he didn't like the thought of it. It struck him as a bad idea, to use his ice powers here in Narira's domain. But without another option, he went for it. He felt inside for that roiling energy, and let it loose in a blizzard around them. The creatures shrieked as they both solidified into rock and sizzled away, steam rolling thickly into the night air. They ran swiftly down the hillside as more began to rise from the lake of fire to take their place. He leaped off the edge, soaring over the bubbling lava beasts, careful to keep Sam out of their reach.

They landed at the foot of her castle steps which were jagged and misshapen, cracked and crumbling.

"So this is Narira's castle," Sam mused, gazing upward at the dark spires that rose into the cloudy sky. "It's a good story," she said innocently, pulling the folded map out of her pocket and handing it back to Danny.

Danny was about to say 'What?' but then he saw what she meant on the backside of the folded page. He'd forgotten that the map was printed on the other side of the actual page in the book that had told the story of Narira and Icehand. "Oh, you uh… you read that, huh?" He said, his hand resting on the back of his neck sheepishly.

"I don't know why you didn't just tell me," she said, crossing her arms indignantly. "Especially since you _brought_ me along. What, did you think I wouldn't understand?"

Danny faltered. He should have seen this coming. "No I… I don't know why I didn't tell you." Embarrassment? Uncertainty? Worry that she'd reject this idea? "I guess I was worried about what you might think, about whether this is even a good idea in the first place, worried about.. well _everything_. I just, I _need_ this to work, Sam. Especially after the other day. I can't lose control like that again, I can't even imagine what I would do if I accidentally hurt you." His head hung low, and his hands ran through his messy hair despairingly.

She surprised him by placing both hands on his shoulders, shocking him into looking up at her. She was glaring straight into his eyes. "Danny, listen to me. You don't have to take on everything alone. I know what this has been doing to you but it doesn't help if you won't talk to me about it. It's not something you're struggling through alone. We are going to overcome it _together,_ okay? And I know you know I'm right, otherwise you wouldn't have brought me along." The finality and harshness in her tone stunned him. "So stop beating yourself up about this! And don't tell me you're not, because I'm not stupid. You never stop vilifying yourself for things beyond your control! The way you look at yourself in the mirror…. It's _killing_ me, Danny." Her expression looked pained.

He blinked at her in shock.

"So let's go talk to this Narira chick already," she said, suddenly smiling. She indicated the lake behind them with a thumb when she added, "I hope she's nicer than her friends back there." The harshness was gone from her voice. She took Danny by the hand and practically dragged him up the cracked stone steps, the ghost boy trailing numbly behind her.

* * *

See you next chapter! Oh and.. if you like this story, please read my other DP stories!

Peace out


	4. Heart of the Volcano

**Chapter Four: Heart of the Volcano**

x - x - x

The inside of the castle was dark and quiet. Deep red fires burned low in forgotten torches. The black vaulted ceiling and crumbling columns looked like they might collapse any minute; parts of the roof looked like they'd already collapsed, and the grey-green swirling sky could be seen through the gaping holes. Patches of rubble littered the marble floor.

The tapping of their footsteps echoed throughout the entire chamber.

"Sam, wait," Danny heard himself saying. She turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "I really am sorry I didn't tell you why we were coming here. I should have. I just… I didn't know what to say. I was still worried I'd really messed up the other day, that maybe you wouldn't want to try again." But it felt like the words she'd laid down on him outside on the castle steps were still resonating in his bones. He'd been stupid to think Sam would hold what happened against him.

"I'm not angry or anything," she said. "I just wish you'd stop treating it like you're a villain and I'm a victim. I'm _not_ a victim. I _chose_ to be with you Danny. Don't forget that, okay?"

Ouch. She really saw through him didn't she?

Danny suddenly smiled. "Okay," he agreed, taking her face in his hands. "No more victimizing." He kissed her softly. For a moment his world consisted only of her, and lava monsters could've swarmed and he wouldn't have noticed.

They continued on from the main hall into a long narrow corridor. Long cracks ran along the marble floor here. Through the cracks in the wall there seemed to be thin lines of lava running through like veins. It gave Danny a crawling feeling on the back of his neck, like this whole place was sort of alive.

"This place gives me the heebie jeebies," Sam said, reflecting his own thoughts, "and that is saying something considering our day-to-day occupation."

They peered into open doors as they walked past, some with doors that were completely gone from their hinges, some with doors that were locked and wouldn't budge. All led to more empty chambers. It felt like some long abandoned ruin that used to be full of vibrant life. He wondered what had happened.

"I can't imagine living here by myself," Danny muttered. "It's gotta be lonelier living here than in Vlad's mansion."

"I'd still rather live here," Sam snorted.

They came upon a wide spiral staircase that stretched away in both directions. Danny peered over the railing, but the passage faded into deep darkness both above and below. He glanced at Sam, who shrugged.

"I'd toss a coin but I don't have one," he joked. "Let's explore… downward." There was a mental image in his head of this place being one large volcano, even though it really wasn't. But if it was, then to get to the heart they'd have to go down. So down they went.

Those strange rivulet cracks of running lava ran along the walls and floor of the stairwell too. At a few places lava seeped out like blood from a cut in the walls and floor. There were no torches here so these veins provided the only deep red light that washed the descending stairs. He watched Sam carefully to make sure she stayed well away from these cracks. At first when they'd arrived he'd been worried that the severe heat would hurt Sam, but he'd soon realized that if she stayed close to the radiating chill coming from his own body that she was fine. Even so, when they passed by one of the freely oozing veins he could see her skin flushing from the pulsating heat. He took her by the hand almost possessively and pulled her closer to him, away from the seeping wall. He allowed the chill from his skin to bleed more freely into the air around them, cooling off Sam.

Hopefully he wasn't pushing his luck. He had to remember that he was way out of his element here, and tried to remind himself of what Frostbite had said.

From then on as they descended he kept her pulled flush against his body protectively, and she didn't protest. She seemed to be relieved to be shielded from the heat. They walked circles and circles and circles, spiraling further downward with every turn. The castle seemed to extend forever underneath the lake of lava. He thought they must be deep underground by now. They kept expecting to come across a door or an entrance to a lower level floor, but the stairs just kept descending. It was like a one way street to the basement level. Danny wasn't sure whether to take this as a good or a bad sign. He was even less certain when the lava veins began to slowly dwindle away. The deeper they got the more the cracks appeared to be crusted over. There were less freely oozing pores in the walls. And the less lava there was, the darker it became.

Danny was reminded of the creepy feeling he'd had that the lava cracks were like arteries and the castle was alive- except now that they were drying and disappearing he was hit with the foreboding feeling of death.

By the time they stepped out onto an even platform Danny was holding a sphere of glowing green ectoplasm out before them to light the path. The flickering light cast sickening shadows all around them. Danny had reigned his cold energy back in by this point. Sam no longer needed it, though she was still hanging onto his arm. It wasn't at all hot down here.. in fact it was almost _cold._

Danny pushed open the heavy door that rose in front of them. It must have weighed hundreds of pounds. When it finally wrenched inward, he saw why. On the other side fragments of ice had been freezing it shut.

The room seemed to be glowing faintly blue, but where the light was coming from he couldn't have said. Tall crumbling arches rose up from the floor to the ceiling a hundred feet above them shrouded in shadow. There were no veins of lava in this chamber. Instead cracks of ice ran along the floor, creeping up the carved rock columns like vines. Other than the broken columns and the ice, the room was as empty as all the others.

But as they stepped cautiously down the central aisle, Danny was struck by the strong feeling that they were no longer alone. Unlike other people, Danny had a more surefire way of knowing if that intuition was correct. And just like that his ghost sense went off, as if simply to prove him right. The icy mist escaped his throat suddenly and he and Sam scanned the room quickly, searching for the unseen occupant.

He felt a cold breeze run through his white hair, disturbing the stagnant underground air. It swirled around them and then whistled away, trailing to the other side of the room like a sigh.

"You have returned." A woman's voice echoed across the room, and it sounded like she was whispering from the bottom of a well. Her soft voice was eerie.

Before Danny could answer, the breeze was surrounding them again. "I knew you would return for me," she was saying demurely. "And here you are."

Danny tossed his head back and forth, trying to pin down where the voice was. But it seemed to be everywhere. Sam's back pressed in on his side, her eyes eagerly searching the room.

"It has been so long, love, so very long. But I have waited for you."

And suddenly a pair of liquid orange eyes were an inch from Danny's face. They were wide and without pupils or features, but yet they didn't seem beast-like to Danny, just thoughtful. They didn't seem to be looking at him at all in fact.

Sam's head snapped toward the eyes. She had opened her mouth to speak when the ghost interrupted with another thought.

A blue hand appeared before Danny and reached slowly toward his face. He was seeing the shape of her slowly coming into focus. A tall wispy body, faint and bluish-white. His eyes fell on the faint outline of a silver necklace wrapped around her neck, hanging from it a glowing blue pendant. Her hand that wasn't reaching toward Danny rested on the necklace. He tried to reconcile this woman with the fiery drawing of Narira, and failed. What had happened to her?

"I felt it when you returned," she was saying softly. He could feel her cold breath on his cheeks. "I felt the cold change in the air when you came home."

Danny's eyes flashed toward Sam, wondering wildly what to do. She looked just as lost.

"Narira?" he said to the glowing orange eyes. He had to make sure. Her reaching hands pressed against the sides of his face, freezing to the touch, brushing searchingly against his skin. Her eyes seemed to widen a bit. Danny was struck with the thought that maybe her eyes could not actually see him.

"You are not.. You are not him."

And like that the glowing white figure vanished again, swirling away in a gust of wind.

"Wait!" Danny called, running after her down the hall. "Wait, stop!" _Damn it,_ _where did she go?_ He wheeled around to find Sam, and saw that there was a pair of orange eyes floating just above Sam's own eye-level.

"Why have you disturbed me in my solitude?" he heard the soft voice purr.

Danny flew quickly to Sam's side. "We just wanted to talk to you," he offered.

The wispy figure was coming into focus again. She seemed to be made of faint blue fire. The orange eyes turned back to Danny, though they could have been focused anywhere. "And who are you?" She circled around him, coming to rest a faint misty hand directly on his chest, where he could feel ice radiating outward in response to her icy hand. "Why do you feel just like him?" Danny couldn't help but feel his heart break a little bit at the way Narira said that last line. She sounded so utterly forlorn.

"He has the same powers that Icehand did," Sam supplied, stepping in closer to Danny. "That's why we wanted to speak with you."

The orange eyes seemed to increase in luminescence. "I see." She swirled away and reappeared by Sam's shoulder again. Her blue hands were pulling Sam away before Danny had time to think, leaving Sam to stumble down the aisle as the orange eyes surveyed her. "And who are _you?"_ Her voice contained unhidden curiosity.

"I'm- I'm a friend-"

"A _friend,"_ she repeated mysteriously, her orange eyes glowing brighter.

Danny was flying to their side again, reaching for Sam, but Narira went intangible again, this time bringing Sam with her as she swirled away, reappearing at a platform at the far end of the row of arches.

The orange eyes flared in Danny's direction as he whirled towards them. "He is so very protective for a friend." Amusement laced her tone. And by the time Danny reached them again they had vanished; he heard Narira's echoing laughter as she dancing invisibly around the room. "I have to wonder." Danny wheeled in circles, trying to find where her voice was coming from. It was impossible with that echo. "What brings a young ghost with ice powers to this forgotten world?" Narira and Sam appeared down at the ground level again. "And why is there a human with him?"

This time she didn't object as Danny wrenched Sam from Narira's grasp. She let Sam slip easily from her arms, and circle back around them thoughtfully. "In all these lonely years I have not had a visitor come here. I thought you were my love returning for me, but I should have known better."

"Narira," Sam whispered, apparently undeterred by the slight kidnapping. "What happened here? What happened to you? What happened to... him?"

The orange eyes flared and turned to Sam. Danny inched slightly in front of her instinctively.

"He is _gone_."

"But why?" Danny heard himself saying.

Narira was quiet for a moment and he thought he'd really angered her. But then she answered with a softer tone. "It was his choice," she stated coldly. "He chose to protect his realm of ice instead of staying here with me, where he would have been safe. He was destroyed. It was long, long ago." The flare in her eyes dimmed again, and they were almost white instead of fiery orange. Danny wondered idly if her loss had something to do with this cold death here at the heart of the castle.

"What do you want of me?" she asked sadly as her wispy body slowly drifted backwards down the aisle, away from Sam and Danny.

Danny faltered. He realized he did not know _what_ he wanted of her. "I…"

The orange eyes flashed again. "Not you, _heart of ice."_ She said it like it was an insult. "It's not what you want of me but what _she_ wants of me." Narira disappeared again and there she was pulling Sam out of Danny's grasp once more. He could not keep up with Narira's erratic movements- she moved as wishy-washy and freely as flames did.

"Because we are the same, you and I," she demurred.

Sam wasn't struggling to free herself as Narira twirled into the air, wheeling Sam around like they were waltzing. She didn't protest what Narira had said. "It's clear why you've come."

"Oh is it?" Sam said sarcastically, but Danny could hear the uncertainty in her voice.

Danny gazed up at them from the floor, not sure what to do. He was crouched low, ready to come to Sam's defense. But he wanted to give Narira the chance to speak, hoping it would be something helpful.

"But why?" Narira whispered to Sam wistfully, almost longingly. "Do you not see what has become of me? Do you see what love has done for me?"

Sam voice betrayed annoyance. "I can see just fine."

"Then why invite in the sorrow? My fire is long dead. He took it with him. I am nothing. I am a ghost of a ghost, girl, do you want to become what I have become?"

"Everything that happened here happened because you chose it," Sam replied scathingly. "Nobody took your fire. You gave it up."

Narira's eyes suddenly flared up red, bright seething flames. "How dare you."

"I know it's not what you want to hear," Sam was saying. "But Icehand moved on like so many other ghosts eventually do, and he's probably at peace. Wherever it is that spirits go when they finally move on. And here you are dwindling away into eternity, holding onto your grief. It's really.. it's really sad. I'm sorry for you."

"I don't want _pity,_ human," Narira's voice was sharp. She abruptly let go of Sam, allowing her to fall quickly through the dark air. Danny leapt into flight and caught her instantly. "It is I that pities _you._ You're as naïve as I once was. As I will never be again."

"There's nothing naïve about being in love!" Sam shouted through clenched teeth and clenched fists. Danny kept one hand on each of her arms this time, determined not to let Narira sweep her away again. This was beginning to get a little bit out of hand. "You're just bitter because you were left alone! If you _really_ loved him, you would move on yourself, and join him, instead of lingering here nursing old wounds."

The orange eyes appeared in front of them, their fire having dulled a bit. "You speak of love as if you know. You may be a human adult but in my eyes you are a child. I have loved for hundreds of years. What could you possibly teach me about love, child?"

"I can teach you that love isn't in that necklace you keep holding your hands over every time you mention him," Sam said coolly.

Narira's hands flew up to the pendant protectively, her eyes narrowing at Sam. Danny hadn't noticed Narira doing that. He knew shouldn't second guess Sam's eerie perceptive abilities, though. "He gave me his heart," Narira whispered, as though that was an answer.

"That's not his heart. It's just a token, nothing more. And look at you. It's taken over your whole existence. Your whole world is dying because you can't let it go."

Narira was phasing the necklace off her neck to examine it more closely. She held it to her face but didn't seem to actually look at it, and once again Danny wondered to himself whether the ghost was blind. She drifted in close to Danny and Sam once more. If Danny didn't know better he might have thought the look in her eyes was a kind of amusement.

"And you want it," she stated, without any hint of a question.

Sam's eyes widened in response. "I-"

"Your heart betrays you," Narira whispered sadly. Without warning her icy hands were on Danny's chest, sending him reeling backwards. "And you betray hers! You would do to her what has been done to me? Look! Look at my home, ghost! Look and see what your icy _love_ will do to her warm heart!" Danny could only stagger backwards at the onslaught, and Narira seemed to glow brighter with every word. He didn't want to attack her and he couldn't think of a thing to say. His mind was completely numb with shock. "You long for her, to touch her, as Icehand once longed to touch me." She shook the silver-blue pendant in Danny's face angrily, as if trying to force him to see. "Your love will _destroy her."_

"Stop!" Sam was screaming, running after them. "Danny don't listen to her! She's _wrong!_"

Narira suddenly wheeled around to face Sam.

"Love didn't destroy you Narira, _you_ destroyed yourself! Don't you _ever_ blame Icehand for what you've become!"

Narira's eyes spouting columns of flame, and for the first time flickers of flame appeared at her wispy hands. "Do not speak of him as if you knew him!"

"I know enough." Sam had reached Danny's side and she was wrenching him away. He was still reeling from Narira's words. "I know you two loved each other and chose to be together. No one forced you to accept that necklace."

"No," she said sneeringly. And abruptly her temper was gone again, her eyes dulling back down to that soft hazy white. She really was as fickle as a flickering flame. She reached a hand over and rested it on Sam's face. Danny expected her to flinch back but she didn't. "You really are just as I was," she whispered, "so long ago. I wish that I could see your face, your eyes."

"Narira," Danny breathed, nearly wishing they'd never come. "We never meant to hurt you. We shouldn't have come."

The wispy ghost was fading again, less pronounced than before, drifting slowly away down the dark aisle.

"Do you think you could still love him," she whispered at Sam, and again her voice filled the entire chamber, "if he left you alone? To wait, for eternity?"

"I wouldn't wait," Sam replied without hesitation. "I would follow him."

Danny glanced quickly over at Sam but she was avoiding his gaze, staring directly at Narira.

Narira stopped in her retreat, and then swiftly flew toward Sam once more. "You speak with such certainty, child. But we do not know what is beyond. I do not know," she added quietly.

Neither Sam or Danny had anything to say to that.

And then, after a moment of silence, Narira held out her hand and let the necklace fall to the floor. The tinkling noise of silver on tile echoed all the way to the ceiling. And she was fading again, drifting back through the arches and columns toward the raised platform.

"I don't understand," Danny felt himself saying aloud. Sam reached down tentatively to pick up the necklace, turning it over curiously in her hands.

"Be gone from here," came Narira's seering voice from all around them. "I have no more to say."

"But why?" Sam called, searching for those orange eyes that had vanished. "Why did you give it to me?"

A soft whisper came from between Sam and Danny- "Because I was in love once too." And they both turned to it but they didn't see her eyes, they only saw each other's astonished faces. The invisible breeze swirled around them once more and swished away down the hall, and Danny thought he could hear her light laughter, soft like the sound of bells, as it disappeared down at the end of the hall.

* * *

Damn this chapter was difficult to write! I got MAD writer's block like BAM fresh out the grease.

So you better have enjoyed it. Maybe a bit angsty on Narira's part.. but I would be angsty too if I'd been left to dwell on my lost love for a few hundred years.

Reviewmekaythanksbye

One chapter left! I'll try to get it up soon.


	5. Igloo

**Chapter Five: Igloo**

x - x - x

Holding the necklace was like holding onto an icicle.

Danny stood uncertainly on the tile in Sam's kitchen, pretending to rifle through the fridge for something to eat. He wasn't really hungry. He toyed again with the idea of putting the necklace down but he didn't. It dangled limply, coldly from his hand at his side. He hadn't let go of it since he'd taken it from Sam inside Narira's castle.

Sam came up beside him. "Staring at the fridge isn't gonna make more food appear."

Danny didn't answer. He wanted to joke with her, play it off as no big deal. He really did. But Narira's words kept playing over and over in his mind. When he closed his eyes he saw that dark abandoned castle, and when he looked at Sam he couldn't shake that image from his head.

Sam slid between him and the fridge, looping her arms around his waist. "You ever gonna put that stupid thing down?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

He shrugged, looking away. Reluctantly, he lifted his hand and let the silver necklace clatter to the countertop behind him. He strode away without waiting to see if Sam would pick it up, letting himself sink into the cushions on the living room couch.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sam approaching him. He shut his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall, suddenly wishing he was fast asleep. Where he wouldn't have to think about any of this anymore.

"Danny, stop."

At that his eyes snapped open. "Stop what?"

"Just _stop._ Stop thinking what you're thinking! I can see the wheels turning in your head and it's driving me crazy."

She didn't know what he was thinking, he was pretty sure of that.

"I know you too well," she said, arms folded defiantly as she sat down next to him. "You're totally giving this whole thing metaphorical meaning that it doesn't have. I am not Narira and you are not Icehand. So you can just stop worrying."

She was only kind of right. His eyes drifted over to her and he saw she was cupping the necklace in her palms. He had a sudden vision of Sam's ghost fading away just like Narira, and it was painful.

"I'm going to put it on now, okay?"

As her hands rose to clasp it around her neck, he couldn't help himself when his hand shot out to stop her. "Sam wait."

"Why?"

"Are.. are you sure you really want to?"

Sam's facial expression looked like he had just slapped her. "Are you even serious? Of course I want to."

Danny still didn't take his hand off her hands. "I just.. want to make sure it's really what you want."

He was being serious, and couldn't help feeling slightly annoyed that Sam seemed almost amused at his concern. She gave him one of her snarky half-smiles. "Danny, it's not like it's a wedding ring." She started to laugh, but it died as soon as she saw the look on Danny's face.

"You're right," he admitted. "It's not. It's… kind of bigger than that."

All Danny could think of was that cold, dark chamber, and that feeling of empty endless eternity.

Sam's hands fell back into her lap as she watched him uncertainly. "You really think that?"

The two of them had never actually talked about marriage before. Simply because, well, it didn't really matter, you know? Marriage was something that _other_ people talked about, people who hadn't already found the person they were going to be with forever, people who were still looking. With Danny and Sam it just kind of went unspoken. He knew, and he knew that she knew, that marriage was a formality and whatever the two of them had was already more permanent than a legal term could ever make it. Besides, they were so young. He supposed that's the only reason thus far that had kept him from flying Sam off to Vegas in the middle of the night to make it official. Even though he knew she loved him, he couldn't help but hope if they kept it unofficial maybe someday she could still escape him. Not that he would ever tell her that. How do you tell someone you're scared to make it official because you're hoping they'll see sense one day and leave you, while at the same time praying they never do?

Up till now, he'd been able to imagine that it was possible Sam could see reason one day. Leave him. Have a much better life. While at the same time he was aware that what he and Sam had was.. well it was permanent. It was a constant, like gravity, like the theory of relativity. It was perpetual. The two feelings were contradictory, to say the least.

And after seeing Narira, that sense of eternity was more real to him than it had ever been. To most people death and afterlife was a vague abstraction, but to Danny it was always fresh and immediate. Not something he could push to the back of his mind. Seeing that ghost like that, looking at Sam now, he couldn't help but feel the potential 'forever' laying there between them like a tangible object, something that could be wonderful or something that could end in a sad, dark, freezing chamber of ice.

"I do," he answered her softly.

He raised his eyes slowly to meet hers, wondering what emotion she was feeling. Wondering if she was as conflicted as he was. To his surprise, she broke out in a toothy grin. "Well that's good. And here I thought you were _never_ going to pop the question!" There was a twinkle in her eye; she was joking, trying to lighten his mood. To his chagrin, it was working.

"Sam, I'm being serious here…"

"So am I," she countered. "Danny, don't you know by now that I'm not planning on going anywhere? I know you don't want me to take this necklace lightly, and I'm not. You want me to think long and hard before I decide to put it on. It's a commitment, I know. But I've already _done_ my thinking Danny. I've thought about you since the seventh grade when we met. I already made this decision. Years ago, before we even started dating. You already know that my answer would be yes if you asked me to marry you, duh, emphasis on the _duh._ So I know you can't be surprised about this." She raised a hand to his face gently, looking steadily into his eyes. "Oh Danny," she said softly. "This is another one of your stupid fits of nobility isn't it?"

He almost choked. "What? No it's not-"

"Stop trying to protect me from yourself. Yeesh, can I ever convince you that I don't need protecting? Least of all from you."

Danny rolled his eyes, resting his own hand against Sam's, savoring the warmth of it. Instead of answering her he let his hand trail down her arm to her shoulder, pondering his answer. Then he pulled her suddenly, closing the gap between them on the couch, turning her and scooping her onto his lap. He kissed her lightly on the cheek, wrapping his arms around her so that she was leaning back on his bicep. A very comfy spot, he assumed. He rested his cheek on the top of her head, nuzzling her sleek black hair. It seemed to smell like a different kind of flower every day.

"It's just that forever is a long time, Sam."

He hoped she knew what he meant. What he was hinting at, that he couldn't really put into words.

Forever. Such a foreign concept to most people. Not to them. They had seen forever. They had met forever, in hundreds and hundreds of lost, lingering spirits. Forever could be a lonely thing.

"I know it is."

There was something else that had been bothering him, and he couldn't stop himself as he blurted out, "What did you mean when you said you wouldn't wait?"

_"Do you think you could still love him," Narira whispered at Sam, and again her voice filled the entire chamber, "if he left you alone? To wait, for eternity?"_

_"I wouldn't wait," Sam replied without hesitation. "I would follow him."_

She didn't answer for a moment. "Heh, I was hoping you'd forgotten about that."

"I didn't." His tone sounded gruffer than he'd meant it to. He had been mulling over her frightening words for the last few hours since she'd said them, trying to understand what she had meant.

"Don't get your panties in a twist Danny. I was trying to make Narira understand what she did wrong. I wasn't saying I would straight up _off_ myself if you died okay? I only meant that I wouldn't linger around the Ghost Zone for hundreds of years mourning you. …If you moved on, I- I would move on too."

"Oh." That was all he could think to say.

And for some reason, his heart suddenly felt a little bit lighter.

He could see Sam fiddling with the pendant on her lap, turning it over and over in her hands, examining it. The pendant's faint blue glow made her hands shine the lightest of blues. He saw by the white in her fingers how tightly she was clutching it, like it might try to escape her at any moment.

So Danny removed one of his arms from her waist and plucked the necklace from her fingers. "You realize though that now when I buy you a real ring it's gonna have to live up to _this_?" he joked. "I mean, where am I going to find a diamond ring that glows blue? That just isn't fair."

He unclasped the silver chain and made to loop it around her neck.

"Woah," she uttered, the moment the pendant made contact with the skin on her chest. "Weird."

"What?" Danny said, as he snatched the clasp into place.

"It's… it's really cold. Really, really cold."

Danny peered around her other side to see the necklace, and saw that the bluish glow had intensified threefold since he'd put it on her. It really was beautiful; he hadn't been exaggerating. The pendant itself was like a rounded vertical rectangle, with silver lining to match the chain. The clear gem embedded in it could have been a diamond, but the bright light originating from the very center of it cast small fleeting sparkles of blue light all throughout the gem, making it appear more like a sapphire laying in a fireplace.

_Hsss. _Sam's sharp intake of breath, her hand flying up to cover the pendant.

"What? What?"

"Nothing," she said immediately. "It just feels strange. I can feel the cold of the necklace, like it's seeping down into my heart, into my lungs..." She must have seen the terrified look on Danny's face, because she hastily added, "Don't worry it doesn't hurt, it's just strange is all. So strange. It's like, brain freeze for my whole body." She chuckled at her joke but Danny's throat felt dry and he realized he was squeezing the couch cushions so hard it was a wonder they hadn't ripped yet.

A minute passed as Sam adjusted to the strange sensation, her hand resting on the necklace in a fashion eerily similar to Narira.

Then Sam abruptly swung her legs off the couch, sliding off Danny's lap.

She laughed, glancing down at her legs. "Weird. Kinda feels like my legs are asleep."

Danny's inner alarm bells went off. That would go away right?

He stood up and followed Sam as she sauntered into the kitchen, wondering what she was doing. To his profound amusement Sam stopped at the fridge, flung open the freezer door, and stuck her hand inside the ice box. He wanted to laugh at the way her eyebrows were furrowed in concentration, and he had to remind himself that this was a serious situation, not a funny one. But he couldn't hold in a snort when she pulled out a full handful of misshapen ice cubes.

She stared at them ponderously. "Huh." She sifted them through her fingers to her other hand. "Hmm."

"I've never seen anyone concentrate so hard on ice cubes."

She glared at him, without any menace. "I'm experimenting."

"And the conclusion..?"

"These ice cubes," she replied, "are not cold."

"Fascinating," he said jauntily. "This experiment has done wonders for the scientific community."

"The test results were inconclusive," she said, tossing the ice cubes into the sink. "I think I might need to do additional testing if I want to prove my hypothesis."

"Additional testing?" he sniggered. God she was such a dork. As much of a dork as he was.

"What do you say?" she said demurely, looping her arms around the back of his waist.

That look in her eyes. Why did she have to give him that look? It was the same look she'd given him back on the roof, days ago, the one that had finally busted his streak of self-control.

Only… It wasn't the same now, was it? Now his eyes fell on that necklace, that little silver ray of sunshine, as Sam leaned up to kiss him.

And any self-control he may have deluded himself into thinking he still had was out the window.

Suddenly they were kissing as though none of this had happened, as if they had just picked up right where they left off on the roof before everything turned sour. After all, he couldn't focus on his shortcomings or his doubts or his fears while he was kissing Sam. She blew every other thought out of the water.

And then his hands were on her waist, sliding under her shirt- when they got there he never knew. He had backed her up against the island countertop in the center of the kitchen as he pushed forward into their kiss, felt her stop stepping backwards when there was nowhere left to back up. He was lifting her up onto the countertop so he could run his hands down her legs, feeling a rush of pleasure in the fact that they were exactly eye-to-eye when she was sitting up there, her knees pressing against both sides of his hips.

He pulled back for a breath of air, but her hands snared into the fabric on his shirt, refusing to let him go. A shuddered foggy breath escaped from his half parted lips, but Sam didn't notice and kept kissing him. She had her hands hooked under his shirt now and was tugging it off- jeez, she didn't mess around did she?- and her cool hands where running down his stomach- and he felt a jolt of that ever-present energy surge down his arms. Opening his eyes he saw that a ring of ice two feet wide was spreading out from his hand on the countertop. And Sam still hadn't noticed.

Normally his panic would be bubbling over at this point, but it was like someone had turned the panic alarm on mute in his brain. He knew it was there going off but he'd be damned if he could hear it. All he could hear was the blood rushing in his own ears, beating furiously- kinda sounded something like _Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam._

His shirt was somewhere behind him on the floor and his hands were sliding up the outside of Sam's thighs under her short skirt- _God, it should be a crime to have skin this smooth. Or a crime to hide it under clothes. _And she kept pulling him closer, closer, even though they couldn't _get_ any closer, but she just kept pulling. Her hips on his hips. The counter froze solid and Sam still didn't stop kissing him.

But Danny pulled back between kisses, if you can call it pulling back since his face was the only thing he managed to tear out of Sam's grasp. "Sam wait-"

"Wait what?" she said with barely hidden annoyance. God he loved her like this. He felt that icy fire churning up like a hurricane inside his chest. It was a wonder the whole apartment complex wasn't a glacier already judging by the energy he felt boiling inside him.

He had to chuckle at her response. "I was only going to ask if you wanted to take this out of your kitchen. Maybe.. out of your apartment." He eyed the counter warily, which now looked like it had been imported recently from Antarctica.

Sam followed his gaze to the counter, looking a bit shocked. "Huh." She looked at her own legs, where the bare skin was touching iced-over marble. "Huh. Yeah, I cannot feel that. It.. tickles. More like a breeze than ice. How cool is that?" Her amethyst eyes were sparkling with excitement when she looked at Danny again.

"Way cool," he said smoothly, a vast understatement of how he really felt about that. Inside, his heart was doing somersaults. "So.. you wanna take this elsewhere?"

"I don't know. I've been thinking about redecorating anyway. I heard igloos are in this year." That snarky smile of hers again. Somehow, it just turned him on more. Though she probably could have crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue and he still might've thought it was the sexiest thing he'd ever seen at this point in the afternoon.

"Nah," he quipped, sweeping her off the counter unceremoniously into his arms. "Igloos are so last season."

He let the transformation wash over him and flew through the wall of her apartment, away into the late golden afternoon.

They ended up settling in a spot in the outskirts of town, in a thick of close-knitted trees. There wasn't a soul around for miles. And just because he could, because he was a sarcastic asshole and he was on top of the world, Danny served up a fresh wall of ice and formed them an igloo at the foot of the trees in the grass.

She didn't shiver when his icy breath formed beads of frost on her skin, she didn't shy away from the cold touch of his hands. The walls of the igloo glowed yellow from the dying afternoon sun, but the snow inside glowed blue, reflecting the light from Sam's necklace and from Danny's hands. He could see the green flashing on Sam's skin, knew that it was the light from his own eyes, and still he didn't care. Didn't try to squash it, force that energy back down. He just let it flow out of his hands into the ground, out on his breath into Sam's hair, let it cover her skin- and she still wasn't shivering. He supposed maybe he should thank those textbooks from the Far Frozen after all, because this, _this_, was the best thing he had ever felt. That free flowing of energy, unchecked, for once. For the first time.

And _damn_ was it good. He didn't have to ask Sam to know she felt the same. He couldn't help the narcissistic feeling that nobody, anywhere, had ever had sex as great as this. After all, he'd always heard of sex as a hot and sweaty affair. But this was anything but. It was like a splash of cool water to the face, it was like a glass of lemonade of a summer day, it was like a breath of fresh air after emerging from a cave. It was _refreshing_, and he was more alive than he had ever been in his life. Even before, back when he'd been one hundred percent alive.

More than once he had to light up a flare of green ectoplasm to melt all the snow that had formed around them, pressing in on their bodies on all sides. He supposed if anyone happened upon their igloo it would really be a sight to see. What with it being an igloo in the middle of a forest devoid of snow, full of bright flashing lights and soft ragged breaths. But he was really too far gone to care about the possibility of being noticed.

Later, years later down the road of their relationship, Danny would have all but forgotten about that frightening night of 'almost' on the roof of Sam's apartment. Whenever he thought about the first time they made love he always thought about that hour under the trees, in that stupid igloo he'd conjured up on a passing whim.

* * *

Woohoo! So yeah, finally done! Sorry I got writer's block for this last chapter. I wanted to make it good but like, I don't write smut yo. Lol. So it's good without getting _tooo_ good, if ya know'm say'n.

If you liked this, check out my other DP stories. :) As an expert on myself, I'm pretty sure my other ones are all written better than this one is. Haha.

Thanks for reading, folks


End file.
